St. George’s opens Primary Schools Basketball league with two victories

Led by Dillon Abraham’s 10 points, St. Georges opened play in the 5th BVI Primary Schools Basketball League that began over the weekend at the Multipurpose Sports Complex with a 37-25 victory over Enis Adams. Jamari Scatliffe followed up with eight points and Kade Challwell added another seven.

Keshawn Esprit had a game high 11 points to lead Enis Adams and Malcolm Christopher dropped in another eight.

“Since only five of the original 13 registered teams showed up, we were only able to play three games,” Sharlene Hill noted. “But, we expect a full slate of games on Saturday at the Multipurpose Sports Complex. There’s too much going on, on Fridays and a lack of facilities to have games. But we had some competitive games. I was however disappointed with the lack of parental support.”

Besides St. Georges, a record 11 teams have signed up to play in the league. These include: defending champions Francis Lettsome Althea Scatliffe, Alexandrina Maduro, Willard Wheatley, Joyce Samuel, Ebenezer Thomas, Seventh Day Adventist, Enis Adams, Ivan Dawson and Isabella Morris—who fielded a joint team with Lenora Delville last year. They registered but dropped out as well as Virgin Gorda’s Bregado Flax. The league runs through the first week in December before school closes for Christmas break.

“Last year we had eight teams and had 13 registered this year before two dropped out,” noted Hill. “More of the children were on their principals to get involved and it all has to do with discipline of the kids right now because they understand that they have to meet our criteria of having at least a C average or else they won’t be eligible to play. So basically, it’s a tool we use to get the children to stay within the guidelines and it has helped us a lot this year.”

In their second game, St. Georges raced to a 16-0 halftime advantage en route to beating Willard Wheatley, 20-7. Chalwell led all scores with seven points while Stepphon Deleon and Xllomar Gunn had four points respectively.

Alex King was Willard Wheatley’s top scorer with five points.

After leading Ivan Dawson 12-8 at the half, Isabella Morris held them scoreless in the third quarter during a 21-11 triumph. Jerquan Charles was Isabella Morris’ top scorer with 11 points. Emmanuel Tolentino followed up with six.